MrNaturalAZ
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2014
- Posts
- 80
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- 87
Well, I bought these while they were on sale for $250. I've had them for about a week, and have maybe 15 hours on them. I'll offer my impressions so far.
Unboxing: It seems like Monoprice has been taking packing lessons from Amazon. The headphones arrived in an outer box twice the size of the product box, with absolutely no packing material (no peanuts, no bubble-wrap, no crumpled paper, no plastic pillows), so the inner box was free to bang around inside during transit. That said, it seemed to survive the journey unscathed. They come in a sturdy gift box. Inside is a nice semi-hard zippered storage/carrying case which holds the headphones, amp, cables, and charger, with plenty of extra room left over for your portable DAP or DAC, making for an easily transportable complete system.
Build and ergonomics: Yes, there's lots of plastic. But that keeps them light. Fit and finish is excellent. Four-way swivel and adjustable headband allows for a good fit on differently sized and shaped heads. Cups were big enough to fit my ears, just barely clearing the top of my helix and bottom of my lobule. The foam-filled pleather pads make a good seal, and are deep enough to keep even my ears from touching the inner grilles. The cable is generous but not too-long 6 feet in length, while the included cable to connect from amp to source is just over two feet - long enough to comfortably use a handheld DAP, but not so long as to be a nuisance in a stationary desktop application.
And now the part you're all waiting for. How do they sound?
First listen: They weren't dazzling. Nothing particularly remarkable. No glaring defects, aside from what seemed to be a slight bloat in the lower midrange that made them sound a bit dark on some recordings. Not quite as open or airy as I would have hoped for. But one thing I did notice was vocal clarity. Not emphasized - they're quite flat sounding - just extremely clear and detailed. Violins and guitars also sound excellent through these. This was right out of the box.
Extended listening: After a bit more time and several more sessions, they seemed to get better. I don't know how much of it is my ears/brain getting used to them (I've intentionally avoided using any other headphones) and how much is attributable to a breaking-in process, but they get better the more I listen to them. I'm no longer noticing the lower-mid bloat that I did on my first listen. As noted by others, the lower bass does roll off, but there's still usable response down to 40Hz. The highs are there too - not emphasized as in so many other headphones, but a good flat response out past the audible range. So no boom-sizzle; just an honest presentation of the recording.
In addition to the improvement of time from session to session, I also notice that in any given session, they seem to improve over the course of the first hour or so. At the start of each session I feel like I need to have them almost maxed out on volume, but after a while I'm finding that they seem louder and clearer and I actually want to reduce the volume some. I've read somewhere that this is often the case with estats, that during any given listening session, as the static charge builds and propogates over the surface of the diphragm, they gradually play louder and the sound improves, taking up to an hour to stabilize.
As for what's needed to drive them, I'd say about 2v rms is sufficient. I can get them to full volume, even into compression and slight clipping on some particularly loud recordings, with my Hiby R3Pro. Adding an extra amp in between gains nothing, the headpones' own amp clips long before the external amp is maxed out. So I'd say any modern DAP should be sufficient to drive these. Using my phone (Moto G6), OTOH, I can only get them about half as loud with the phone's volume on max. YMMV.
So I'd say I'm quite happy with these for the $250 I paid. Are they worth the $600 regular price? I dunno. But at the $250-300 sale price they seem to be periodically offered at, I'd say they're quite decent, depending on your needs. Due to their limitations in loudness and deep bass, and lack of high-end boost, I'd say they're probably not for anyone who likes their music at earbleed volumes, hard rockers, bassheads, or for dance/electronic. OTOH, they're great for jazz, folk, most classical (especially chamber music), and softer rock. They really shine on vocals. They could be a bit more open, and I wouldn't mind a deeper soundstage, but then again, these are still headphones. In spite of their imaging limitations, I did notice that live recordings fare especially well through these; the ambiance really comes through.
If "cheap" or "bad" electrostatics (as I've read some people describe these) sound this good, I fear I may have poked my head into what may turn out to be a very expensive rabbit hole.
Unboxing: It seems like Monoprice has been taking packing lessons from Amazon. The headphones arrived in an outer box twice the size of the product box, with absolutely no packing material (no peanuts, no bubble-wrap, no crumpled paper, no plastic pillows), so the inner box was free to bang around inside during transit. That said, it seemed to survive the journey unscathed. They come in a sturdy gift box. Inside is a nice semi-hard zippered storage/carrying case which holds the headphones, amp, cables, and charger, with plenty of extra room left over for your portable DAP or DAC, making for an easily transportable complete system.
Build and ergonomics: Yes, there's lots of plastic. But that keeps them light. Fit and finish is excellent. Four-way swivel and adjustable headband allows for a good fit on differently sized and shaped heads. Cups were big enough to fit my ears, just barely clearing the top of my helix and bottom of my lobule. The foam-filled pleather pads make a good seal, and are deep enough to keep even my ears from touching the inner grilles. The cable is generous but not too-long 6 feet in length, while the included cable to connect from amp to source is just over two feet - long enough to comfortably use a handheld DAP, but not so long as to be a nuisance in a stationary desktop application.
And now the part you're all waiting for. How do they sound?
First listen: They weren't dazzling. Nothing particularly remarkable. No glaring defects, aside from what seemed to be a slight bloat in the lower midrange that made them sound a bit dark on some recordings. Not quite as open or airy as I would have hoped for. But one thing I did notice was vocal clarity. Not emphasized - they're quite flat sounding - just extremely clear and detailed. Violins and guitars also sound excellent through these. This was right out of the box.
Extended listening: After a bit more time and several more sessions, they seemed to get better. I don't know how much of it is my ears/brain getting used to them (I've intentionally avoided using any other headphones) and how much is attributable to a breaking-in process, but they get better the more I listen to them. I'm no longer noticing the lower-mid bloat that I did on my first listen. As noted by others, the lower bass does roll off, but there's still usable response down to 40Hz. The highs are there too - not emphasized as in so many other headphones, but a good flat response out past the audible range. So no boom-sizzle; just an honest presentation of the recording.
In addition to the improvement of time from session to session, I also notice that in any given session, they seem to improve over the course of the first hour or so. At the start of each session I feel like I need to have them almost maxed out on volume, but after a while I'm finding that they seem louder and clearer and I actually want to reduce the volume some. I've read somewhere that this is often the case with estats, that during any given listening session, as the static charge builds and propogates over the surface of the diphragm, they gradually play louder and the sound improves, taking up to an hour to stabilize.
As for what's needed to drive them, I'd say about 2v rms is sufficient. I can get them to full volume, even into compression and slight clipping on some particularly loud recordings, with my Hiby R3Pro. Adding an extra amp in between gains nothing, the headpones' own amp clips long before the external amp is maxed out. So I'd say any modern DAP should be sufficient to drive these. Using my phone (Moto G6), OTOH, I can only get them about half as loud with the phone's volume on max. YMMV.
So I'd say I'm quite happy with these for the $250 I paid. Are they worth the $600 regular price? I dunno. But at the $250-300 sale price they seem to be periodically offered at, I'd say they're quite decent, depending on your needs. Due to their limitations in loudness and deep bass, and lack of high-end boost, I'd say they're probably not for anyone who likes their music at earbleed volumes, hard rockers, bassheads, or for dance/electronic. OTOH, they're great for jazz, folk, most classical (especially chamber music), and softer rock. They really shine on vocals. They could be a bit more open, and I wouldn't mind a deeper soundstage, but then again, these are still headphones. In spite of their imaging limitations, I did notice that live recordings fare especially well through these; the ambiance really comes through.
If "cheap" or "bad" electrostatics (as I've read some people describe these) sound this good, I fear I may have poked my head into what may turn out to be a very expensive rabbit hole.
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